Note: This is a PTR preview article, and things may change. For up-to-date information on what's on live servers, please read the Darkmoon Faire Guide.

New Darkmoon Faire Game: Racing

The racing game from the beta has returned with some modifications! Players race through the Darkmoon Faire woods trying for the fastest possible time for prizes. There are two types of races and four mounts. Players only start off with one race/mount option and more will unlock in later months. This means that you cannot get all the listed achievements and rewards in the first month, but will have to return.

There is an introductory quest by the Boardwalk for familiarizing yourself with the race: Welcome to the Darkmoon Races. Once that's complete, you're good to complete The Real Race.

In this race, you have to hit a blue, green, and red post, and then return to the Starting area. You can speed up your progress several ways.

Pick up sprint boosts, which also let you walk on water (useful for reaching the blue post faster).

Jump on bouncy gears to leap forward--make sure you are angled the right way so you don't go off in the wrong direction.

Use the special Jump To Banner button, on a 10 second cooldown, to leap to the nearest banner and be immune to electrical wires for a few seconds.

Avoid the electrical wires which stun you.

There are achievements for completing the race on one of four special racing mounts.

In addition, these races are good sources of achievement points as there are numerous achievements for completing the races at different speeds.

Darkmoon Faire Heirlooms

Heirlooms are still sold at the Darkmoon Faire. They are cheaper as the versions sold go from 1-60 in Patch 6.1, instead of 1-80 as they do now. Your existing heirlooms purchased from the Faire will scale up to 90 automatically when 6.1 hits.

Heirlooms are receiving changes in 6.1 as part of the account-wide heirloom collection system--read more about it here.

Instead of upgrading your heirlooms with the older version + even more prize tickets, you just purchase an item in 6.1 to upgrade your old heirloom.

If you just want to collect heirlooms to fill up your collection's tab and get Chauffeured Chopper quickly, wait until 6.1 to buy them as they are cheaper. If you want to actually use the heirlooms, it is better to buy the lvl 80 version from the Faire right now but skip upgrading it, as it will scale up to 90 in 6.1. This is cheaper than buying a base heirloom and upgrading it to 90 in 6.1.

Comment by DaltonImperial

Comment by perculia

I've added in a section about heirlooms--I don't see a way to upgrade to 100 yet but you can upgrade to 90 and the costs have been reduced for the base heirlooms.

Comment by DaltonImperial

on 2015-02-08T11:47:37-06:00

Thank you, Perculia.

Comment by Nyres

on 2015-02-08T11:58:47-06:00

Note turtle game is much harder now and IMO completely too hard for the simple reward the achievement gives.

Comment by HarkenRebirth

on 2015-02-08T12:28:15-06:00

Lol, that ring thing. SONIIIIIICCCC

Comment by prinnygod

on 2015-02-08T12:46:57-06:00

Darkmoon Faire starts on the first Sunday of each month, right? Curious about why it didn't start last Sunday.

Comment by Shadowloot

on 2015-02-08T12:51:33-06:00

I wonder if they managed to update fishing at the fair yet.On live I still only catch MoP fish.

Comment by VixOrien

on 2015-02-08T13:18:10-06:00

Have the base costs been reduced on live too, or just on the PTR?

Comment by perculia

on 2015-02-08T13:19:55-06:00

No, the ones on live are still more expensive as they scale from 1-80, plus there is the option to upgrade them from 80 to 85. Which feels a bit pointless as according to the recent heirloom blog, both versions will scale up to 90.

Comment by Raevenne

on 2015-02-08T13:23:28-06:00

Seems like it would be better to get what you want now since they'll automatically scale to 90 when the patch hits, which would be cheaper than buying after 6.1 when you'll have to spend more tickets for the item plus the upgrade part. (Unless I'm having a bad math moment... entirely possible I suppose... )

Comment by perculia

on 2015-02-08T13:25:38-06:00

If you want to use the heirlooms, I think it would be better to get the base version now, but not upgrade them. Right now you'd pay 110 for a lvl 80 chest, which turns into a lvl 90 one in 6.1. You'd need 150 tickets in 6.1 to buy the base one and upgrade it.

Of course, if you don't care about using heirlooms, you could just buy some weaker 1-60 ones for 50 each in 6.1 so you can hit 35 total for faster.

Comment by ZerOrbit

on 2015-02-08T13:42:39-06:00

I'm as excited as I was when we first learned about the faire back in cata!